Cantonese Lesson 3
Numbers and Counting

The Chinese number system and the Western number system are very similar, but differ early on.  While the English number words from 11-100 undergo sound changes, the Chinese numbers remain predictable.

In Chinese, whole numbers follow the format: 

• number + place (ten thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens, ones)

• If there are one or more places in a row with a zero between non-zero digits, a single \lihng\ fills the places.  Try 101, 1001, 1010, 10001, 10101 below.

• Numbers ending in zeros omit the final zero place holders.  Try 100, 1000, etc.

• 11-19 are exceptions in that they omit the initial "-yat-", instead of "-yat- sahp -yat-" it is just "sahp -yat-"

Ordinalizing numbers is accomplished by simply adding daih to the front of a number.  To make "one" become "the first", "-yat-" becomes "daih -yat-"

Decimal Numbers

Decimal numbers are read with the whole number read first, the word /dim/ (to denote the decimal point), and then each each decimal place read.  Zeros are treated the same as other digits.  If the whole number is zero the initial zero can be read or omitted.

Examples:

Counting

Counting in Chinese is somewhat different than in English.  Chinese requires the use of a special class of words called "measure words."  These serve to give units for counting and classifying nouns.  Some words in English perform similar functions, but the difference is that in Cantonese all words require a measure word when being counted.

This section will only explain what is needed to know in order to count generic objects.  Grammar Lesson 7 dedicated to using measure words.

• When counting objects, Chinese uses the following formula:
  Number + Measure Word + (Object)

• The most common measure word is "go"- which is used to count many different things or when the classification is unknown.

• When counting fractions of a thing, Chinese uses the following formula:
  Whole Number + Measure Word + Fractional Number + (Object)

• When the number of objects is 1 or 1 and a fraction, Cantonese speakers generally omit saying -yat- and just say the measure, any fraction, and optionally the object.

• When the number of objects is 2 or 2 and a fraction, it is always counted as "a couple of objects" /leuhng/ instead of "two objects" yih.

Examples: